Administrative history: The Flat Earth Society of Canada was organized at Fredericton, N.B.
on 8 November 1970 by Leo Ferrari, Raymond Fraser, and Alden Nowlan. According to them, a
prevailing problem of the new technological age was the willingness of people to accept theories
"on blind faith and to reject the evidence of their own senses." To promote critical thinking, the
society chose to dispute one thing that "scientific Western civilization" considers indisputable --
namely, that the earth is round. The organization, therefore, set as its primary aims: "to combat
the fallacious deification of the circle," "to restore man's confidence in the validity of his own
perceptions", and "to spearhead man's escape from his metaphysical and geometrical prison."
"The earth is flat; any fool can see that" was adopted as the society's principal motto.

The society's long-serving president and primary promoter was Leo Ferrari, a philosophy
professor at St. Thomas University. Other members of the executive included poet-novelist
Raymond Fraser, writer Alden Nowlan, writer-educator Alphonsus J. Pittman, and poet-novelist
Gwendolyn MacEwen. To boost membership and advance the cause of planoterrestrialism, the
executive issued tractates (two by Nowlan), published a newsletter called The Official Chronicle
(later an official organ, The Official Organ), and distributed promotional literature at public
lectures and meetings of the Learned Societies of Canada.

Ferrari and Nowlan also promoted the society's aims more widely through television, radio, and
the public press. They wrote articles, gave newspaper interviews, and appeared on television and
radio programmes such as This Country in the Morning, Spectroscope, Take 30, W5, and Front
Page Challenge. The publication of William Johnson's article about the organization in Saturday
Review of the Sciences (May 1973) resulted in an influx of requests for membership, primarily
from the United States. The same year the name of the organization was simplified to The Flat
Earth Society to reflect its growing international appeal.

Generally, planoterrestrialists were drawn from among the well-educated -- computer scientists,
university administrators, academics, lawyers, physicians, scientists, poets, and writers. They
included such well-known figures as writer Farley Mowat, television personality Paul Soles,
American novelist Lawrence Block, and poet Elizabeth Brewster. Associate membership was
granted to persons "of integrity" who subscribed to the society's aims and submitted an essay
giving their reasons for believing the earth was flat. After three years, associate members-in-good-standing were granted full membership status. In 1974, the society could boast
approximately 100 members in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Planoterrestrialists waged
an intellectual, often humorous "battle" against the "globularist heresy" for over a decade before
fading from view in the mid-1980s.

Scope and content: This series documents the activities of The Flat Earth Society of Canada,
later renamed simply The Flat Earth Society (FES), from its birth in November 1970 until its
demise in the mid-1980s. More specifically, it highlights Ferrari's role as the society's
spokesperson and long-serving president.

It includes correspondence, notes, membership records, financial records, newspaper clippings,
photographs, and cartoons. In addition, the series contains copies of newsletters, tractates
(statements of the society's views), and drafts of speeches as well as draft and published copies of
articles about the society and its members. Also included are an unpublished manuscript, The
Earth is Flat! An Exposé on the Globularist Hoax and a published copy of Ferrari's scholarly
article "Feminism and Education in a Flat Earth Perspective" which appeared in McGill Journal of
Education.

Subseries 1, administration contains correspondence between executive committee members as
well as between the executive committee and the society's general membership. Letters discuss
Flat Earth activities -- publication of newsletters and tractates, public lectures, television
appearances, and radio interviews as well as personal news, articles about the society, and
financial matters. Also included are financial statements, bank records, receipt books, invoices,
reports of field trips, completed membership forms, membership certificates, membership lists,
membership cards, requests for information, and numerous letters from individuals explaining why
they wish to become "Flat Earthers".

Subseries 2, publications and presentations contains draft and published material about the
society -- its views, its aims, its activities, and its members. Included are reference materials,
draft articles, poems (one by Nowlan), copies of The Official Chronicle and The Official Organ,
correspondence with printers and distributors, and letters requesting permission to print items in
the newsletter/official organ. This subseries also contains copies of newspaper stories, tractates,
drafts of addresses delivered by Ferrari, and three photographs of him speaking. A videotape
entitled "In Search of the Edge", a matted print of Columbus's ships at "the edge", an audio tape
of Ferrari speaking about the society, and cartoons dealing with the flat earth/round earth debate
are also included.

Subseries 3, Flat Earth manuscript consists of drafts of Ferrari's unpublished manuscript, The
Earth is Flat! An Exposé on the Globularist Hoax and his correspondence with various
publishing houses.

28. Over the Edge [draft copy, transparency, and other material relating to Ferrari's book of
poetry]

29. Tape (reel-to-reel) of Ferrari speaking about FES, n.d. [created]

30. Articles [newspaper and magazine] about FES, 1973-81, n.d.

[includes booklet "The Earth is Flat" written and illustrated by John Kilburn for the Literacy
Council of Fredericton, 1984]

31. Addresses [articles, quotes, and poems by members; includes one poem by Nowlan]

32. Address delivered by Ferrari at International Symposium on Problems Related to the
Redefinition of North American Geodetic Networks," May 1974 [created]

33-1 Talks [pen sketch of Ferrari, newspaper clippings, speech notes, and copies of addresses
delivered to Canadian Cartographic Association, to NBEPC 25 Year Club, and to EPA
Stewardesses, 30 April 1973]